Substance abuse is a significant problem for women with severe physical and psychological consequences. Women experience a faster progression of alcoholism with les consumption of alcohol than do men. This increased rate of progression contributed to more alcohol-related illnesses in a shorter time period. Substance abuse in women is often present with other comorbid psychiatric disorders making diagnosis and treatment more difficult. To date, no study has examined risk factors for substance abuse among low income, rural women. The specific aim of this study is to identify risk factors specific to low income, rural, substance abusing women. Several risk factors identified by epidemiological and clinical studies as correlates of substance abuse in the general population will be examined for their potential to predict substance abuse in rural women. Those risk factors include sociodemographic risk factors, family history, victimization, daily hassles, alcohol expectations, coping, and self- esteem. The sample will include 200 low income, rural women recruited from two types of agencies: (6) alcohol and drug treatment centers and (6) diagnostic groups based on result of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) criteria. The groups will consist of two substance abusing groups and two non-substance abusing comparison groups. The two substance abusing groups include: 1) women with a substance use disorder who also meet criteria for a depressive disorder, and 2) women with a substance use disorder who do not meet criteria for a depressive disorder. The two non-substance abusing comparison groups include 1) women with a depressive disorder who do not meet criteria for substance use disorder, and 2) women who have no Axis I disorder. Women in the substance abuse groups and the depressive disorder group will have not other Axis I disorder with the exception of anxiety disorder. Sampling will the place in two stages. In the first stage, the two types of agencies will each randomly select 500 women treated during the past 18 months for total of 1000 women. In th second stage, quota sampling will be used to recruit equal numbers of women form that random sample into the four diagnostic groups for a total sample size of 200. Equal number of African-American and Caucasian women will be recruited within each of the diagnostic groups. Descriptive statistics will be used to describe scores on all measures of interest. Discriminant function analysis will be used to determine those risk factors that best predict group membership. This study will make a significant contribution to our knowledge of substance abuse among rural women. That knowledge is essential in designing cost-effective treatment programs that address the unique needs of this vulnerable population.